


Forever, After

by Wookiesauntie70 (Antillia)



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Genre: F/M, Force Bond (Star Wars), Krayt Dragons (Star Wars), Post - TROS, Sand People, Tatooine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-04
Updated: 2020-05-04
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:02:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23972692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Antillia/pseuds/Wookiesauntie70
Summary: Rey has business on Tatooine.
Relationships: rey skywalker/ben solo
Comments: 15
Kudos: 17





	Forever, After

**Author's Note:**

  * For [CarneySibley](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CarneySibley/gifts).



+

"Come along, BB-8. We'd best get back."

The droid warbled a response before whirring over to Rey's speeder. He swivelled his head, scanning for evidence of Sand People beyond the moisture farm's rudimentary sensor perimeter.

Night fell quickly on the Lars homestead. It was past time to return to the pourstone dome marking the entry to an underground warren of interconnected rooms. Kitchen, refresher, dining room, sleeping quarters, storage--Master Luke had grown up in luxury, and those were just the living quarters.

There was plenty of room for vehicle storage further on. Rey spend most of her time in the tech dome garage adjacent to the power generator room. At some point, a hydroponic garden must have taken up another vast chamber nearby. Water collected by the vaporators she'd already refurbished was stored in tanks in yet another area, their built-in design the only reason they hadn’t been scavenged along with everything else. 

Clearing the sand from the entry dome had taken time, but Rey had plenty. She'd even rebuilt it.

+

Her requirements were few; her need for provisions limited. Most of her purchases involved vaporator components. She had credits enough for that.

"What's a pretty little thing like you doing out there, all by yourself?" 

He meant well, the wrinkled human merchant with the leathery face and bright green eyes. So did his wife, when she suggested Rey was crazy to take on the Lars homestead instead of settle in the relative safety of Anchorhead.

"I'm not alone," Rey assured them. 

She wasn't. She hadn't been alone since Exegol.

+

"How many vaporators do you _need _, girlie?" joked the merchant.__

__She still hadn't learned his name. She would—she preferred doing business with him than the other shops or stalls lining Anchorhead's main drag. He was fair, he was honest. Others looked to him._ _

__"You'll draw the Sand People with so many vaporators, mark my words."_ _

____

____

Rey would simply buy another part - sometimes an entire unit. 

+

Working on technology as straightforward as vaporators allowed her mind to wander. She didn't mind Luke's teasing if her clever fingers and even better instincts didn't instantly solve whatever problems presented themselves. Working on the speeder was fun--she'd souped it up. Ben approved wholeheartedly.

+

"You must have an awful lot of water collected out there, sweetheart. Have you decided how you're going to distribute it?"

The math was simple enough for those scraping out an existence near the Jundland Wastes. Efficient vaporators produced reliable quantities of water. Surely Rey had more than enough to sell by now? There was no evidence she was using it to farm.

+

She felt their presence: Sand People, gathered just beyond the perimeter of the weather sensors and basic warning system. Tusken Raiders. They feared nothing, save a vengeful demon who’d slaughtered many of their number decades ago with his terrible, glowing sword. They’d performed ritual sacrifices ever since in hopes of keeping him at bay. 

The object of their raids was inevitably moisture farms, and the Great Chott salt flat community ringing the southern extreme of the Wastes was home to many. 

Rey moved though her forms, double-bladed lightstaff whirling, aware of Anakin Skywalker’s legacy as Tatooine's twin suns set. The Sand People watched.

+

There came a howling in the night, a crying out in the Force. Rey lifted her head from the balled-up cloak that served as her pillow. She pulled on her boots, clipped her saber to her belt and unhurriedly pulled a scuffed leather satchel from its hook 

“Stay here, BB-8. We'll be back soon enough."

+

The Krayt dragon left a string of mauled corpses in the rocky valley, and now it had cornered the last of the Bantha herd. This was a slaughter, a predator killing for sport. The kyber at the heart of her saber sang as Rey brought the blade to life.

She stepped directly into the dragon’s path. The Bantha was large, the dragon larger, and it roared its annoyance before baring its fangs and lashing its tail in the starlight. Despite the pleasure the creature had taken in tormenting the Bantha herd, Rey did not toy with it.

The slain beast was enormous. Rey sliced through the thick scales of its underbelly, ignoring the stench of entrails as she removed the prize within. A Krayt dragon pearl would grant her right of parley with the Sand People.

+

Shrouded in sand cloaks and mystery, they awaited Rey's approach in silence. The wild Bantha she rode had sought others of its kind. There had been no need to stretch out with the Force to determine the settlement’s location. Moonlight sent strange shadows playing over faces obscured behind wrappings, eye coverings and mouth grilles. 

Rey slipped from the Bantha’s back before giving it a pat, along with leave to seek the company it desired. Wary, the Raiders kept their distance. Then she pulled a large, burlap-wrapped object from her satchel. Unwinding the cloth, she placed it on the sand between herself and the people who fought to preserve that which they held most dear—water. Sticky from the belly of the Krayt dragon, the Pearl gleamed pale in the moonlight.

+

"What exactly do you mean, ‘they won't bother us anymore’?" The leather-faced merchant was skeptical. So was his wife.

"We mean what we say. If the moisture farmers maintain what they have and take no more from the air than they already do, they and the settlers need not fear the Tusken Raiders. They will raid no more. 

Water is sacred to their people, and constant expansion of moisture farms threatens this world. The Sand People will, from this day forth, act as stewards of the Lars homestead. Droids will maintain the vaporators as required. In addition, the Sand People will consider acting as your protectors should outside forces threaten Anchorhead. Other settlements will learn from the example you set.”

For the first time, Rey's cape shifted enough to reveal the lightsaber clipped to her belt. 

The merchant blinked.

"What did you say your name was?" He'd never called her anything but 'girlie' or 'sweetheart.'

'Skywalker. Rey Skywalker," she smiled. Then she walked away, ball droid rolling in her wake.

+

_"I'll come back for you, sweetheart. I promise." ___

____

____

Hope she'd clung to for so long; words she'd made up in her mind, words that had never failed her—they came to her in Ben’s voice as his consciousness tore itself from hers. 

For the first time since Exegol, Rey was truly alone.

+

Luke's X-wing skimmed the water as waves foamed, dashing themselves against the rocks of the island. 

_"I'm here," _she thought to him. His answer didn't echo back; it hadn't since their severance on Tatooine.__

____

____

His consciousness and hers, entwined as never before--two as one—she'd felt whole for the first time in her life, and felt off-balance now. But Tatooine’s sands and the stars and the sea all sang that Rey was coming home.

She banked the fighter so it swung in a high, lazy arc above the island, sending seabirds scattering as she set it gently down beside the one ship she most wanted to see.

+

Rey ascended the steep, cut-stone path spiralling toward the island's pinnacle.

Luke had waited there once—for her. 

Someone else waited now, his dark hair windblown and his long cloak swirling around him in the breeze. Sea birds called, and the roar of surf was far below. 

She couldn't feel him now, not within her. 

But when he turned at her approach, his eyes lit up and Rey launched herself into Ben's arms.

+


End file.
